Madrid

Restaurants in Madrid

Unsurprisingly, Madrid is one of the tapas capitals of the world, and dozens of Madrid restaurants serve the dishes. If you want some of the best the city has to offer, visit eateries like El Tempranillo, located near the Plaza de los Carros on the lively Calle Cava Baja, or the super romantic Celso y Manolo, which specializes in Madrilenian street food as tapas. If you’d like a side of history with your meal, be sure to make a reservation at Restaurante Sobrino de Botín, a nearly 300-years-old Madrid restaurant and one of the world’s oldest eatery. Try delicious dishes like roasted lamb and suckling pig while marveling at the restaurant’s retro surroundings. And being the international city it is, there are also plenty of restaurants in Madrid that specialize in non-Spanish cuisine. Grab a table at Bangkok Thai for a taste of the Far East or dip into the Paella de la Reina for rich Mediterranean cuisine. And whatever you choose, be sure to eat to your heart’s content in this hotbed of top notch cuisine.

Located just off the Gran Via, this casual, inexpensive eatery is set on a busy corner in Chueca, the city’s gay village. The two-story dining room is open and airy, with large street-level windows, whitewashed walls, bare-board floors, and pale gray chairs.

Star chef Andrés Madrigal is at the top of his game creating nouveau-Spanish dishes for his 75-euro tasting menu (about $96; à la carte is also available), which starts with a series of amuse-bouches, such as a Bloody Mary with Parmesan foam served in a shot glass.

Akin to (but a bit more polished than) the Sbarro chain found in many American airports, this cafeteria-style eatery serves up Italian fast-food staples: pizza by the slice with a variety of toppings, red-sauce pastas like lasagna and baked ziti. Grab and go or sit and stay—it’s your choice.

This gem in the arsenal of every businessman and artist in town is nevertheless missed by many tourists. Inside the modern, uncluttered Scandinavian-style dining room, walls alternate between bold red, mustard yellow, and carved blond-wood panels.

Often named among the best seafood restaurant in Spain, O’Pazo is owned by Evaristo Garcia, who also runs Pescaderías Coruñesas, a seafood supplier that provides the restaurant with fresh fish from the Galician coast.

Known for its market-sourced Mediterranean cuisine, Chantarella is headed by chef-brothers Álvaro and Enrique Díaz. The brothers opened the restaurant on Calle Luisa Fernanda in 1999 and moved to this larger space after two years.